Recently members of the public were invited to make submissions to the Henderson-Massey Local Board on the ”Draft Harbourview-Orangihina Park Masterplan”.
There were 248 written submissions.
Yesterday at a Hearing commencing at 10 am here were 13 oral submissions.
Prior to submissions Board Chairman, Shane Henderson attempted to stifle any comments on the Marae.
The proposed Marae is inside the Harbourview Park.
Here is my submission.
I have called for a referendum.
“Mr Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I wish to go back two decades to a time when 2 local MP’s, Chris Carter and Brian Neeson conducted surveys to see what the ratepayers of Te Atatu wanted done with the land handed to Waitakere City Council by Auckland Harbour Board. The overwhelming response was for a People’s Park devoid of buildings similar to Cornwall Park.
On 25 October 2000 WCC voted that the land become an open space park.
Following extensive public consultation and work put in by the Te Atatu Residents and Ratepayers Association the Open Space Management Plan was adopted by WCC in February 2003.
In relation to that I would like to express a special vote of thanks to the late Jeff Neilsen, Elizabeth Grimmer, Leo Nobilo, Bob Stannic and Anne Grace. A levy of $9 per annum was imposed on all Waitakere ratepayers for 5 years for maintenance of the park.
Then in mid-2003 there was a proposed plan change to allow a marae. Further to public consultation it was revealed in November 2003 there were 91 submissions — 74 against , 17 for.
At an HMLB meeting in February 2017 it was fallaciously claimed “In 2003 Waitakere City Council were about to gift/handover2.5 hectares of land to Te Atatu Coalition Marae.” That’s nonsense. There are no minutes to substantiate such a claim.
It is my wish that we honour the plan adopted in February 2003. There is nothing more frustrating for ratepayers who have invested time thought and money into the democratic process only to have agreed commitments subsequently thrown out or modified to such an extent that the original plan becomes unrecognisable. Many of the people wanting extensive changes to the accepted plan from 2003 won’t have even contributed one cent to the People’s Park.
Bearing in mind the considerable time and effort that went into the 2003 plan, with the proposed extensive changes, in fairness to all the original submitters and all ratepayers who were levied $9 per annum for 5 years I would like to call for a referendum on this matter.”
Accountability in Auckland Council 